soddersays | SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

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SEPTEMBER 2020 TEST DRIVE MEME

Welcome to September's Test Drive Meme! This month's Test Drive's theme is: CHILDREN/YOUNG ADULT HORROR.

All Test Drive Memes contain at least one clue to the Deerington's upcoming in-game events for the month! Keep your eyes peeled! But...not literally.

Characters may die during TDMs, but you do not need to count it towards a game-canonical death unless you want to. Consider it a freebie. All TDMs can be considered game canon as TDMs introduce minor aspects about the world of Deerington that can be revisited by characters later on in the game. You may also use TDMs for your application writing sample as well as AC.

CW: Evil dollhouses, potential body horror (turning into a doll), heights, pranks with the potential to cause harm, some stalking vibes
Don't forget to tag content whenever necessary. Have fun!

Prompt One
Prompt Two
Character Arrival
Master Navigation

THE EVIL DOLLHOUSE

When you wake up, you find you're not in your own bed, your own room, or even your own house. The room is well decorated, almost Victorian in fashion. The bed is pretty uncomfortable and you're not even sure the mattress is a real mattress. The chairs look like they might be made of plastic and the doors are flimsy. But it might not be what catches your eye, especially if you look out the window.

Through the clear panes (which also seem to be plastic), you will notice you do not see the town of Deerington, or even the outdoors at all. You see a living room that feels larger than life. There aren't any people in it, but as you look around at the fake looking furnishings and the strange view, you might be hit with a realization: you're inside a dollhouse.

The dollhouse has three floors for those who explore; the second floor you woke up on has two bedrooms and a fake little bathroom, all decorated in the same Victorian dollhouse style as the room you originally found yourself in. The bottom floor has a cute little kitchen with small porcelain dolls sitting around the table, a living room with all the basic furniture one would expect to find (in fact, it looks a great deal like the living room outside the windows), and an office filled with books that can't actually be pulled out of the shelves. On the very top floor is an attic. It's dusty and filled with broken toy beds and chairs, a few shattered doll pieces, and on the far wall you'll see another bookshelf. All seems... fairly standard, really, if you're used to seeing dollhouses.

But what there doesn't appear to be is an exit.

While searching, you may run into another Sleeper. A friend or a stranger, it's clear you're both stuck here together. And the longer the time ticks by, the more concerning things get. You might not notice at first, but anyone inside the dollhouse starts slowly... changing. It seems to go at a different pace for everyone, but the results are always the same. Your skin will start to become porcelain, your cheeks more rosy, your clothes made of cheaper cloth material, your joints become stiffer, and your eyes will start to become more and more glass like. If you don't get out of the dollhouse soon, it's clear that you may become the next doll at the kitchen table.

Searching the house again may feel fruitless, but keen observers may find light scratches on the floor in front of the bookshelf in the attic. Maybe they were like that because of someone moving things around or maybe there's a reason. If you decide to eventually pull the bookshelf aside, there will be a large door in the wall. It may seem strange, given that the wall only leads to the outside, but it's the only door to the outside that actually opens. You expect it to open up into the living room, but instead you'll see the grass of the park below. Far below. It's likely you could get hurt jumping, especially if you've started to turn to porcelain, but what other choice do you have?

Once characters take the plunge, they will find that they land rather softly in the grass, despite how high the jump may have seemed. As soon as you are out of the dollhouse, your body will have returned to complete normal.

And the house with the dollhouse in the living room will be nowhere in sight.

THOSE PESKY KIDS

You start off thinking maybe you're just forgetful and moved minor pieces around in your house without paying attention. You might think you're just seeing strange things out of the corner of your eye, because why wouldn't you? It's Deerington. Things are always strange. But each day, there's something weirder going on. Small objects might turn into entire rooms being rearranged, strange sightings out of the corner of your eye might turn into you swearing you saw a lake monster running through the street, and you swear you can hear the rattling of chains or the sounds of someone telling you to leave echoing in your house at night or following you down the street.

A haunting seems plausible. It wouldn't be the first time in Deerington. But no amount of herbs burned, or exorcisms performed, or chants and spell cast will make these things go away. In fact, they seem to just becoming more and more frequent, and more and more intense. Eventually, the strange creatures you see running around may start to try and attack you. They may start to try and kill you. But they always run off before you can attack back or show yourself to be stronger than them. It's probably the first time the monsters have ever been so easily scared.

Anyone who looks into it further may start to find weird clues lying around after a monster has been chased off. Footprints that don't look quite monster-like, tapes or records that when played will make strange rattling sounds like the chains you've been hearing, a piece of rubber that looks a lot like the monsters skin... Huh. The more you follow the clues, the more they'll lead you towards the answer to your dilemmas; these aren't hauntings.

They're pranks.

People can work together to catch a monster or ghost (or killing it, if you decide to); catching them will lead to them getting quite flustered and angry, struggling to get away. Pull off the mask or the sheet and underneath you'll find... a very disgruntled townsperson. Maybe your business was taking too much money away from theirs and they were hoping you'd close down with enough scares, maybe you talked back to them one time and they were looking for revenge, maybe you ruined their house or garden when you were fighting the things in Deerington that actually try to kill you, or maybe they were just having some "harmless" fun; they all have a different excuse, but they're clearly angry about getting caught.

They woulda gotten away with it if it weren't for you pesky Sleepers, after all.

Character Arrival

You can read how all characters arrive in Deerington here.

There is not a collective "all these characters showed up at the exact same moment" occurrence in Deerington. Since characters fall asleep, die, or pass out at various times throughout all their worlds, it wouldn't make too much sense if they arrived in game all at the exact same time. There should be some discrepancy between character arrival, whether by a couple minutes, hours, or even days up to a week.

The players are entirely in control of how/when they want to play their characters arriving in Deerington. For TDMs, you can play it like your character has just arrived and that can be maintained as your game canon, or you can wait until game events for that moment. Or you don't need to acknowledge it at all. The flexibility for character allows a bit more of an organic feel to the character arrival situation, so please play it to whatever feels right for you.

If you are interested in having an "arrival" introduction for one of your TDM prompts, you are more than welcome to explore that option.

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[ Her eyes light up. ] Oh! You have your gir..[ Wait he said he, so she quickly corrects herself. ] Boyfriend here too! I think he has a point. You should be glad to see each other and be together. If you love each other, you're better together than you are apart.

[ Sorry Shiro, she really can be naive.

She gives a nod, following his lesson.]

Oh, I wish we did have something like this at home. It would be really nice to actually see Elsa, rather than just send her a letter.

[Don't worry Anna. He's not here to judge. His smile stays put while she works it out, and nods.]

I am glad to see him. Really glad.

[you're better together than you are apart - oof. He keeps going, though, moving on.]

Hey, if we have our way, maybe you can bring one with you when we get everyone home.

[ She smiles at that, glad not only that he wasn't offended, but also that he clearly is happy to have him there. ]

Good. I'm glad, true love shouldn't be separated.

[ And she doesn't even know the pain it causes.

But she is intrigued at that idea. ]

Ohhh. That is an idea! [ Her thoughts go to Olaf. ] Maybe, I will. Though I have a friend who has a warning about technology, so it might be better to let our technology develop naturally.

[He smiles, briefly. Before turning the conversation more toward the Fluids and technology.]

[Safer that way.]

A warning? What do you mean?

[ She gives a wave of her hand, not too concerned with one of Olaf's ramblings. The little dear had so many, and much as she loved him, they often didn't make sense. ]

Oh it's probably nothing, but he talks about how technology will be our downfall, or something like that. [ She'd gotten distracted many times during their conversations. ]

I guess maybe since technology can break, the idea is that if you become too reliant on it, you'll have no means to be without it.

I... guess I can't agree with that. Where I'm from, technology's saved more than it's dragged down.

[He shrugs though - maybe it's different in her world. He has no way of knowing.]

But, just about everything we rely on is a form of tech, in its own way, isn't it?

Well, Olaf isn't always right, so I guess I can't fall on either side of this one. My guess is that it's like everything else, it all depends on who is using it.

[ The second thought she can actually weigh in on though. ]

Very true, and everything that is new takes time to adjust too. Kristoff...my fiance, hated a machine that was made to assist with ice harvesting, but it did really offer assistance. So long as you don't forget who the people doing the work are, technology can be a help, but I think it should be only that...a bit of extra help.

It's okay. Mixed feelings are natural, I think.

[The second one is a little... more difficult to think about. Where does "help" start and stop? Does 'putting someone into safe stasis for thousands of years' count as help? It certainly kept someone important to him alive, after all.]

[But better topics.]

Wait. Ice harvesting? That's - really something you can just farm?

A solid agreement on that!

[ Right, with technology he would know the ice machines. ]

It's required where or when we come from. Men, go out on the frozen lakes to the north when the ice is at it's thickest and they use horses to draw the lines before they cut it with these very large saws. Then they pack them tightly together in ice houses until the warmer months when they deliver them. One of Arendelle's richest trades is in ice.

Really?

[That's pretty impressive. And he sounds it, too.]

And that's what your fiance does?

[ She gives a nod, pride evident on her face. ]

Yes! In fact the last few years he's been running the entire trade really, my sister put him in charge of it all. He's our country's Ice Master. It's tough work, and very dangerous, but he loves it.

[That's... really sweet. The look on her face when she talks about her partner. It's nice to see on someone.]

Ice master for the whole country, huh?

He sounds like he's something else.

Mhmm.

[ Not even Deerington could take that look away. ]

He really is. Too hard on himself, but aren't we all?

Hey, I'm sure someone, somewhere, has a good sense of self-worth.

[.... hahahaha.]

[ She gives a laugh. ]

The only people I have ever seen that seem to have a heightened sense of self worth are those that probably shouldn't.

I mean, my ex was completely in love with himself, and he had absolutely no reason to be.

[Well, that gets a grimace on his end. Big time.]

Ah. I'm sorry to hear that... Can't imagine that was easy to deal with.

[ She gives another laugh, and waves her hand. ]

Oh, he got what he deserved. I just mean to say that I think a certain amount of self doubt can hold a person accountable. But like everything, it's all about balance.

You're probably right about that.

But - it sounds like you're a lot happier now. And that's great.

Oh I am! Much happier.

[ Though she does wish she wasn't stuck in Deerington at the moment, and rather at home living her life and preparing for a wedding. ]

And how about you, how are you doing with this place? Have you been here long?

Good. I'm glad to hear it.

[And he is, too. She seems like a nice person. And people deserve to be happy in their relationships.]

Ah... we're. We're getting by. I'm one of the long-timers. It's been about two years now.

[ She's shocked to hear that information. Two years? That's a very long time. She isn't sure she wants to be here for that long, or knows how to be there for that long. It's a lot to think about and it shows on her face. ]

I...I'm sorry. You've been held captive here for far too long. Hopefully the more people who join us here, the more people we'll have to get help get out.

It's - it's not your fault.

[He doesn't really know how to respond to that. To an offer of sympathy or an apology. So he just shakes his head slightly.]

We're trying. This place is determined to keep us from doing it, but... we're trying.

I know, but I do empathize with how painful it can feel to be trapped in one place for so long. It's very hard and none of you deserve it.

[ Being trapped and not understanding why or when you'll be free from it, is an all too familiar feeling to her, and the smile she gives is about as genuine as they come. ]

And now I'll try too. Whatever I can do to help, I will. Even if I am a mess with technology.

I appreciate the sentiment. Thank you.

[That, at least, manages to get a smile. Faint though it is in return. For some of them, this is... all there is. But she doesn't need to hear that now.]

Hey, sometimes, we don't need fancy technology to solve a mystery. Just a good set of eyes.

[ She gives another little nod, moving on to the less sentimental part of the conversation. After all, she needed the knowledge. ]

Oh that is definitely true! And I love solving a good mystery. A bit of adventure is never a bad thing.

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shiro2hero - 2020-10-16 04:45 (UTC) - Expand

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